Lou Andreas-Salomé
Lou Andreas-Salomé, born Louise von Salomé, was a prominent Russian-born writer, philosopher, and psychoanalyst, known for her influential role in intellectual circles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The only daughter in a family of four children, she grew up in a German-speaking environment in St. Petersburg, where she developed an early interest in literature and philosophy. Salomé's unconventional life choices included rejecting traditional religious beliefs and pursuing an independent academic and artistic career. Despite her marriage to orientalist Dr. Friedrich Carl Andreas, she maintained her independence and engaged in significant relationships with notable figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Rainer Maria Rilke. Her writings, including a notable study of Nietzsche, reflect her deep exploration of identity and gender, particularly in her essay "Der Mensch als Weib," where she argued for women's autonomy. Later, she became associated with Sigmund Freud, contributing to the field of psychoanalysis. Lou Andreas-Salomé passed away on February 5, 1937, in Göttingen, leaving behind a legacy as a pioneering thinker who challenged societal norms regarding gender and individuality.
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Lou Andreas-Salomé
Psychoanalyst
- Born: February 12, 1861
- Birthplace: St. Petersburg, Russia
- Died: February 5, 1937
- Place of death: Göttingen, Germany
Biography
Lou Andreas-Salomé, born Louise von Salomé, was the only daughter born to General Gustav von Salomé (1804- 1879) and his wife, Louise Wilm Salomé (1823-1913). Lou had three older brothers and a French governess. The family spoke German, but considered themselves Russian. Salomé’s father obtained permission from the czar to found a German Reform Church in St. Petersburg, and Salomé attended the Protestant Reform Petrischule (St. Peter’s School), where she became interested in literature and philosophy.
Salomé convinced herself as a child that God did not exist. She attended confirmation classes while her father was ill, but after her father died, she refused to be confirmed. Instead, she turned to the Dutch pastor Hendrik Gillot for guidance, who impressed upon her that she must be true to herself. She turned down his offer of marriage and, accompanied by her mother, went to Zürich in 1880 to study theology, philosophy, and art history.
After Salomé undermined her health studying, her mother took her to Rome, where they met the philosophers Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche, each of whom proposed to Salomé and was turned down. In 1894, Salomé published an insightful study of Nietzsche’s philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche in seinen Werken (Friedrich Nietzsche in his works).
In 1887, Salomé married the orientalist Dr. Friedrich Carl Andreas (1846-1930), but continued her independent lifestyle, financing her travels by her writing. She went to Paris, Switzerland, Russia, and Vienna. In 1897, she met the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) in Munich and brought him back to Berlin to live with her and her husband. The three of them went to Russia together in 1899. In 1900, just Andreas- Salomé and Rilke went to Russia. After that, they went separate ways, but remained friends for life. After Rilke’s death, she published a book about him entitled simply Rainer Maria Rilke (1928).
After parting from Rilke, Andreas-Salomé lived together with the Viennese physician Dr. Friedrich Pineles, whom she had known since 1895. He too wanted to marry her, but she would not divorce Andreas. Pineles eventually tired of their intermittent relationship.
In 1903, Andreas took up a professorship in Göttingen, where the couple acquired a stately three-storey home surrounded by trees. Andreas-Salomé called the house “Loufried,” or Lou’s place of peace. She decorated her third-storey rooms with blue wall-hangings, large bear rugs, simple pine bookcases, a large desk, and an art nouveau etching entitled “Love” by Heinrich Vogeler. That remained their home.
All of Andreas-Salomé’s travels and her relationships with others can be seen as steps in her own individuation. Her essay “Der Mensch als Weib” (1899; the human being as a woman) stresses that women are complete people in their own right and need not define themselves in relationship to men. Self-analysis was always important to Andreas-Salomé. In 1911 she participated in the Weimar Congress of the International Psychoanalytical Society. She then studied with Sigmund Freud and became a close friend and associate and successful psychotherapist. Andreas-Salomé published her thanks to Freud as an open letter for his seventy- fifth birthday in 1931.
In their old age, Andreas-Salomé and her husband enjoyed each other’s company more than ever before. Her creative writing seems florid, but helps to document her chosen path to self-fulfillment. She died on February 5, 1937, in Göttingen.